VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever: The Complete Guide to Movies on Videocassette and DVD. Ed. By Jim Craddock. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2004. 1 vol. 1,655 p. $24.95. ISBN 0-7876-7470-2.

A heavy paperback book with brief synopses of movies available on videocassette and DVD, this is a very useful guide for finding a good movie to rent for the evening, or to show in the classroom. Entries aren't long and have the title, a one-to-four bone rating, year released, MPAA ration, a brief description, length in minutes, format, cast, director, writers, cinematographers, composers/lyricist and a "Made-for-Television/Cable/Video" identification.

Almost half of the book is made up of appendices, with the first including a definition of some genres. This is followed by a Category List of genre, sub-genre, thematic and significant scene classifications (e.g., Western, Sports and Comedies). A tilted bone means the movie is rated as three bones or higher.

The next section, the Series Index, includes those with recurrent characters, cinematic collaborations, various adaptations and important behind-the-scenes personnel information, again with the date of the movie and a tipped bone for a three bones or higher rating. The Awards Index lists Academy Awards, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards, among others. The indexes of cast, directors, writers, cinematographers and composers list names alphabetically and movies chronologically. The volume ends with a Web site guide divided into sections, such as cult movie resources, film magazines, film studios, film maker resources, film reviews, general entertainment and video outlets.